


there are approximately 7 million lees in your area

by ijd00



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, everything is the same except mark isn't famous, youtuber!mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 09:58:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19293412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ijd00/pseuds/ijd00
Summary: In a world where the only indication of your soulmate is their last name emblazoned on your wrist, Donghyuck really fucking hates living in South Korea.





	there are approximately 7 million lees in your area

Sometimes Donghyuck really envies Johnny. And really, he’s not someone who often gets genuinely jealous, but damn if it doesn’t get to him occasionally that Johnny’s always had it easy. Perhaps not in certain regards, but most definitely when it comes to finding his soulmate. Because come on, Leechaiyapornkul is very distinct. And hard to miss.

(Although Johnny says having the word “porn” written on his skin in the US was hell when he was a kid, Donghyuck still thinks he’s a lucky bastard and should be grateful.)

He and Jaemin have bonded over it before. The fact that they both have Lee written on their wrists. The two of them have stayed up late in the dorms and agreed that having last names written is pretty stupid, especially since Lee is one of the most common last names in South Korea along with Park and Kim. So when Donghyuck turned ten and the name first appeared, he was understandably upset.

Of course, the difference between him and Jaemin is that Jaemin’s already found his soulmate. Jeno. From Jeno himself, having “Na” was most definitely easier to work with and the two’s first meeting was a positive indication that the names on their wrists did indeed mean they were soulmates, but it took two months for the final confirmation to come. Once soulmates meet and realize that they’re destined (or some other bullshit), the rest of their name appears. The amount of time that takes varies between couples and Donghyuck’s heard all kinds of stories about people who think they’re destined, but never get a first name.

(He thinks it’s completely stupid that the whole name doesn’t show up in the first place, but he can also only vent these same frustrations so many times before it gets tiring.)

To top it all off, being an idol makes things extra complicated. He’s both incredibly jealous and concerned about his fellow band mates who have each other. Luckily homophobia isn’t a big enough deal to lose fans over who a soulmate is, but a lot of them like to maintain the illusion that they’re going to be one of NCT’s soulmates. For Donghyuck and most of his other non-matched members, their wrists are almost always covered by a bracelet or makeup.

At night though, Donghyuck’s free to trace the letters on his wrist in a strange mixture of apprehension and reverence. He wants so badly to know who his soulmate is, he’s seen first hand the kind of fulfilling relationship soulmates have with each other. He’s seen it every time Taeyong and Jaehyun smile at each other from across the room, every time Jaemin and Jeno link their pinkies in the van on their way to a venue, how Johnny and Ten have sickeningly sweet phone calls for hours on end. Seeing those kinds of things leaves him with a craving for more, the kind of more that comes with finding your soulmate.

When he can’t sleep (which is admittedly often) Donghyuck likes to entertain himself and browse the web. This usually entails watching videos of other artists and maybe learning the accompanying dance, but also means watching people react to and covering NCT's songs. A long time ago, back when NCT first debuted, he found a Canadian boy who liked to post covers of their songs on YouTube. He could rap and sing, and once in a while even busted out a guitar to accompany his voice. Donghyuck had clicked on the video ( _The 7th Sense_ ) with a bit of trepidation, knowing that Taeyong’s style of rap was hard to replicate, but ended the video thoroughly impressed and maybe a little in love.

The guy who posted the video spoke in English, but had Korean subtitles that Donghyuck had read eagerly. Although he lived in Canada, his family was Korean and he could speak the language. He said the words “um” and “like” a lot, something Donghyuck found adorable. The _guy_ was adorable. It was the way he presented himself, speaking with his hands, fidgeting with the glasses he wore on occasion, the little nose scrunch he did. The guy had a lot of little quirks and by now Donghyuck knew and could recognize pretty much all of them.

He found himself watching other videos, mostly covers of EXO songs. There was only one where the boy wasn’t singing, instead talking about himself. He liked watermelon, rapped as a hobby, and somehow made a rap about watermelon. Donghyuck quite liked it actually. It had a nice flow.

Since the first time he’d watched, more and more covers had been posted and Donghyuck found himself anticipating their release. The boy had a decent following on YouTube, and there was usually a day between when one of their MVs came out and the cover was posted. It was safe to say that he was a little bit obsessed.

The one thing Donghyuck didn’t want to think about too much was his name. The boy always said his first name in his introduction, but his channel name had the whole thing. And the first time Donghyuck had seen it, he’d known that Mark Lee was the one.

*******

NCT 127 is set to tour America and Donghyuck purposely keeps his face neutral when he realizes they’re also going to be preforming in Canada. More specifically in Vancouver. Where Mark Lee lives. Regardless of if Mark gets tickets, the chances of them meeting are incredibly slim. When SM was telling them about the tour, they made sure to emphasize that there would be no fansigns or a meet and greet. There’s no way they’re going to meet.

Donghyuck can tell that his fellow members are extremely excited about the tour, their first world tour. It’s a huge deal and Donghyuck would be more prone to expressing his excitement out loud, but the sudden influx of thoughts about Mark have rendered him mostly immobile. Luckily no one else seems to notice his quietness, too taken by their own joy over the upcoming tour.

Next to him, Yuta’s also immobile, but for a different reason. With the creation of WayV and their promotions in China, Sicheng won’t be able to come on 127’s tour. Their first world tour, and one of the original 127 members can’t even participate. Donghyuck himself can’t help but be upset at the injustice of it all, but knows that as Sicheng’s soulmate, Yuta must be even more sad. He offers Yuta a supportive pat on the back and gets an appreciative smile in return.

The day tickets for the Vancouver show go on sale, Donghyuck purposely avoids Mark’s channel. He knows Mark was going to try and get tickets, but Donghyuck doesn’t know what he’s going to do if Mark doesn’t. Frankly he doesn’t know what he’s going to do if Mark does.

It’s not until another two days pass that he finally checks. Sure enough Mark’s posted a new video, and Donghyuck can’t help the smile that appears when he sees Mark’s face. Damn he really is whipped. He clicks on it without even reading the video title and allows his grin to grow wider when Mark greets the camera with a big smile of his own.

“Yo bros, it’s Mark!” he says, “Guys I did it. I actually got tickets to see NCT 127 in Vancouver and I’m like, so excited to see them!”

Mark then proceeds to recreate the entire ticket buying process, scrunching his face adorably and yelping, “oh my god!” every two minutes. It’s like he can’t believe he really got tickets, and to be honest Donghyuck can’t either. Mark got tickets in the general admission, which means he’ll be on the floor. He knows it would be near impossible to pick Mark out of the crowd, but it does kind of help that he’s a guy and most of their fans are girls.

The video ends and YouTube automatically begins to play one of Mark’s other videos. It’s his cover of NCT Dream’s _Dear Dream_ and Donghyuck finds himself tearing up hearing Mark rap Lucas’s parts. Lucas’s graduation from Dream was highly emotional for everyone involved, and although Donghyuck knows Lucas is doing fine in WayV, he still misses him. He’s never actually listened to this video, the song was too personal, but now that it’s playing Donghyuck can’t bring himself to stop.

Something about Mark’s voice and his ability to both rap and sing has Donghyuck feeling especially emotional that night. For the last part of the song, where Lucas raps over Donghyuck’s singing in the background, Mark leaves Donghyuck’s voice as is. Hearing Mark’s voice combined with his is beautiful, and Donghyuck finds himself liking this version more than the original.

*******

The United States is fun. They spend almost a week exploring New York City and Donghyuck puts up with listening to Jaehyun talk about having lived a state over in his youth for almost half an hour before Taeyong calls his boyfriend over and Donghyuck is left in blissful silence.

Their first show is in New Jersey, and it’s a rush of adrenaline and happiness. Donghyuck loves every moment of it, and the time he spends with his members making memories becomes something he knows he’ll cherish and remember forever.

Speaking of remembering forever. When they get to Atlanta, they collectively decide to try out the food they’ve heard so much about. They all agree that Waffle House sounds the most interesting, but somehow end up going near one in the morning. The place is open 24/7 and there are less people in the early morning, so it’s a safer bet than going during the day.

They split up into groups of three to four and Donghyuck ends up alone with Taeyong and Jaehyun. The NCT members like to joke that as the leader of 127 (and unofficially NCT as a whole), Taeyong is their mom. Since Jaehyun’s his soulmate, he (along with Johnny) are the dad. So Donghyuck very much feels like he’s out to dinner with his parents and based on the look on Taeyong’s face, his parents have some questions.

“So,” Jaehyun drawls after their orders have been put in, “How have you been Hyuck?”

“Good,” Donghyuck answers obediently, like the good son he is.

The pair opposite him exchange a look and Donghyuck is only a little afraid of what they’re thinking.

“Donghyuck-ah,” Taeyong says, and oh no he’s using his concerned mom voice, “We’ve all sort of noticed you rubbing your wrist more than usual in the past few weeks. Do you…do you think you’ve found your soulmate?”

Well. The short answer is maybe. He’s still 99% sure Mark Lee is his soulmate, but there’s only one way to find out, and that requires a lot of time and schedule manipulation Donghyuck absolutely does not have.

He opens his mouth to explain this and then pauses, “Uh…”

Taeyong and Jaehyun smile at him encouragingly and he sighs, “Maybe.”

Surprise flickers over Jaehyun’s face before he breaks into a wide smile, “Wait really? That’s amazing!”

It is. Except once again, Donghyuck can’t exactly call Mark, ask him to meet up, and then wait however long it takes for their wrists to confirm they’re soulmates. Actually he probably could call Mark if he tried hard enough. He’s seen enough videos to know that Mark has a Twitter and an Instagram (which he has not stalked thank you very much) that he could reach out to.

“It’s complicated though hyung,” Donghyuck finally says, “I’m only like, 70% sure it’s my soulmate and being an idol kind of doesn’t allow for us to be able to casually meet non-idols without immense speculation.”

Taeyong hums his agreement and takes a moment to beam at the waiter when their food is brought out. Thankful for the slight distraction, Donghyuck begins to attack his waffle with more enthusiasm than perhaps warranted. It’s actually pretty good, but before he can begin digging into the second waffle on his plate, Taeyong starts talking again.

“Soulmates are usually complicated, or at the very least not what you expected, you know how it was for Jaehyunnie and I.”

He does. The pair met during their collective time as trainees, and it was obvious to everyone that they were soulmates. Donghyuck doesn’t quite remember every detail from the time since he was busy with other things, but he does remember the day their wrists changed.

Or to be more accurate, Taeyong’s wrist changed. Instead of Jaehyun, as he (and everyone else) expected, the name Yoonoh appeared. It caused a minor crisis for the trainees, and in the center of it all, poor Taeyong had been so incredibly confused.

Naturally, Jaehyun had been across the country for two weeks on some family thing and neither of them were allowed cell phones. So for two whole weeks, Taeyong had cried about the Jung Yoonoh written on his wrist without anyone able to comfort him. Watching him train was like watching a strange imposter of Taeyong that knew what it was supposed to be doing, but couldn’t replicate the nuances Taeyong brought.

When Jaehyun finally returned, everyone watched with trepidation as to what would happen. At first, nothing did since Taeyong avoided Jaehyun like the plague until one day after practice, Jaehyun confronted him. Many tears and whisper shouted words later, the two emerged holding hands.

Turns out, Jaehyun changed his name the moment he became legal and never told anyone outside of his immediate family. The soulmate tattoo had sensed that and adjusted itself accordingly, but as Taeyong hadn’t known, he’d been understandably thrown off.

Ever since the misunderstanding had been cleared up, the two had gone back to being their usual sappy selves. Donghyuck was both happy to see it and a little disgusted because honestly, they were so cute together it hurt. Even sitting across from him now, Jaehyun was silently moving bits of his chocolate chip waffle over to Taeyong’s plate so that he could have a taste.

“I do,” Donghyuck finally says, “It’s just, hyung, I really like this guy but I only know him from YouTube and like, that’s not really a reliable source of personality. I mean, Mark is so genuine in his videos that I doubt he’s any different in real life but how am I supposed to know that without alerting him he might be my soulmate and freaking him out. Because I know that if some idol messaged me saying, ‘Hi I found your videos late one night because I couldn’t sleep and fell in love and practically have to watch them to fall asleep. By the way my wrist says Lee so I think you’re my soulmate even though there are like seven million Lees in South Korea alone,’ I’d freak the heck out.”

By the time he’s done, Donghyuck chest is heaving slightly and he realizes he said a lot of things he didn’t mean to. Namely how he found Mark and Mark’s name. And like, pretty much everything after he uttered the words “I do”.

Across from him, Taeyong looks stunned.

“Hyuckie,“ Taeyong asks, “How long have you been keeping all of this in?”

Donghyuck deflates at the question, “Probably several months now, I don’t know hyung. But every time I watch one of Mark’s videos something inside me screams ‘soulmate!’”

“I know what you mean,” Jaehyun nods, “When I first met Yong my heart did the same thing. If your body is telling you that Mark’s your soulmate there’s a big chance he actually is. And yeah, being an idol makes things complicated but there’s always a way Hyuck-ah.”

“How though?” he asks miserably, poking at his hash browns.

“This is going to sound cliche,” Taeyong says, “And in a way it kind of is, but fate will bring you together, no matter how long it takes. You and Mark will meet one day and when you do, everything will be okay.”

“But even if it isn’t,” Jaehyun adds, “We’ll all be here for you. You’re family, and family supports each other through everything.”

Donghyuck smiles at the pair and the three of them finish their dinner (It’s not really dinner, but it’s also not breakfast or close enough to midnight to be a midnight snack) in comfortable silence. Donghyuck is relieved to have finally gotten his thoughts about his soulmate out and infinitely grateful that Taeyong and Jaehyun took him seriously and offered advice. He knows that his hyungs have his back, but hearing Jaehyun remind him of the fact is comforting.

The decision they all (yes, all eight of them) make next can only be blamed on the fact that the clock is now nearing two, and they’re all just a little bit sleep deprived. After paying, they decide to take a walk around and explore Atlanta for a bit, wandering down the streets. No one else is out and there are only a few cars driving around. At some point they walk past a highway exit and Johnny makes Jungwoo take photos of him posing with the “Do Not Enter” sign.

By the time it gets to be almost three, Taeyong’s common sense kicks back in and he ushers them all towards a movie theater so that it’s easier for their manager to pick them up. As they walk through the parking lot though, the lights suddenly shut off, leaving only the theater itself illuminated.

Yuta screeches, “Oh my god everyone run!” but before he can actually take off, Doyoung grabs him by the collar and shakes his head.

“No! Move towards the light source idiot!” Doyoung reasons, “We can’t be killed in front of the light!”

“I don’t know if that’s how that works man,” Johnny says.

Before an argument can break out, their van pulls up and Yuta lets out another screech before he recognizes the vehicle, and smiles sheepishly at everyone after.

“Oops.”

*******

The day before they’re set to perform in Vancouver, Mark posts another video. It’s about him getting ready to go to the concert, talking about his outfit and which songs he’s most excited to hear performed live. He also rambles a bit about how blessed he feels to be able to go and see the show. Before he signs off though, Mark pauses and shouts that he forgot one more thing. He rummages around his desk for a bit before pulling something out. It’s a fan banner.

According to Mark, he made it himself a few days after he bought the tickets. Somehow, Mark’s never properly mentioned his NCT bias. Sure he’s talked about how ethereal he finds Taeyong (who doesn’t), but the words “my bias is...” have never actually left his mouth. So when Mark says that the banner is of his favorite member, Donghyuck’s a little surprised. When he finally shows it on camera, Donghyuck has to force himself to remember to breath.

His own face stares back at him, beaming. Huh. What are the odds.

*******

Performing always gives Donghyuck a bit of an adrenaline high. Seeing their fans sing their hearts out, even though most of them don’t actually know Korean, makes him so happy. Being able to dance and sing along with some of his best friends is incredible and Donghyuck hopes the feeling never ends. He’s proud of himself for not stumbling over the English he practiced hard to learn and grins widely when the crowd screams his name.

Throughout the whole show in Vancouver, he keeps an eye out for Mark, even though he knows it’s probably a fruitless endeavor. During their performance of _Baby Don’t Like It_ , Donghyuck does his own little dance as Taeyong raps and slithers his way down the pole like he was born to do so. Donghyuck looks out into the crowd and then his heart almost stops. Mark.

Donghyuck stops moving for a second and blinks several times to confirm that he’s not gone blind or so desperate to see Mark that he’s started to hallucinate. But no, there Mark is. He’s standing probably five or six rows of people away from the stage and dancing along to the music with enthusiasm, but unlike a lot of people, his eyes are on Donghyuck. He can hear the fans screaming as the camera switches to Doyoung lying on his back, but still Mark looks directly at him.

Upon noticing that Donghyuck is staring at him, Mark gives a cute little smile and waves. It’s so different from the other ways that fans usually try to get his attention (screaming is a popular one), and it’s Mark, so Donghyuck is unable to do anything but gape for a couple seconds. Then Johnny subtly nudges him to remind him to keep moving and right, okay, he’s got this.

Pulling his shit together, Donghyuck looks back at Mark and winks, tossing in a carefree smirk. The girls around Mark all scream, but Mark just blushes. Ugh, who let him be that cute.

For the rest of the concert, Donghyuck finds himself making eye contact with Mark again from time to time. Every time he looks over, Mark is staring at him intently, and when asked why he’s so red by Taeil, he blames how hot the stage lights are. Taeil doesn’t look like he believes him, but whatever.

Although Mark’s staring is intense, every time Donghyuck reacts to it with some kind of gesture, Mark’s cool facade crumbles and he flushes. When they get to throw the balls they signed before the concert, Donghyuck makes sure to aim a pink one right at Mark. Mark’s eyes widen when he realizes what’s coming his way and fumbles the catch a little, but clutches it victoriously a moment later.

He mouths a thank you in Korean, and something about Mark speaking his native language makes Donghyuck feel warm and fuzzy inside, so he briskly nods and immediately turns away to keep throwing balls at the screaming crowd.

(He hopes Mark notices that when Donghyuck went back to gather the balls, he quickly grabbed a green marker and gave the pink one a rind to make it look like a watermelon.)

*******

This is not happening.

No, no, no, no, no. He is not meeting Mark Lee in a McDonald’s of all places. Curse his inability to sleep and the strange desire to get food at three am after a concert. When he stumbled out of the hotel, the McDonald’s was honestly the first thing he saw and the idea of a burger sounded so appealing Donghyuck honest to god almost cried.

Upon making his way inside, he mumbled his order and then slumped into a booth. When he next opened his eyes, he made direct eye contact with Mark. Based on the expression on Mark’s face, he clearly recognized him, despite the hood pulled over Donghyuck’s face and his lack of makeup.

Mark’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times like he can’t decide what to do, but ultimately his eyes dart down to where his own burger is on the table. He looks determined not to say anything and Donghyuck is thankful that Mark didn’t try to take a picture or cause a scene. Of course there’s still time for something like that to happen, but if Mark is anything like his YouTube persona suggests, he won’t.

After Donghyuck collects his order, he hesitates before walking over to Mark’s table and setting his tray down. If Mark looked surprised to see him before, nothing compares to this moment. His eyes are so wide behind his glasses and he looks like such a deer caught in headlights that Donghyuck would’ve cooed if he didn’t feel the exact same way internally.

“Um, hi,” Donghyuck says in English.

Mark slowly closes his mouth and replies, “Hello.”

As the two stare at each other, Donghyuck notices that Mark has a black backpack seated next to him and from the top of it, he can see the pink ball peeking out.

“Did you like my watermelon?” he blurts out, immediately cringing from the question and the fact that his lack of brain to mouth filter caused him to speak in Korean.

Mark stares blankly at him for a couple seconds and Donghyuck can physically hear the gears turning in his head as he tries to figure out what Donghyuck is referring to. 

Finally his eyes light up and he says (in Korean thank god, Donghyuck’s English can only get him so far in a conversation), “Oh! Yeah! Thanks, it was really cute, watermelons are like, my favorite food so it was such a wild coincidence the ball you threw at me looked like one.”

Well. Mark’s an idiot. Coincidence Donghyuck’s ass, the watermelon was very much on purpose. Does Mark really think he takes the time to make all of the balls look like fruit? As if. Just as he’s ready to inform Mark of his stupidity, he realizes that Mark doesn’t actually know Donghyuck knows his name or obsession with the fruit. Like, yeah they made a bunch of eye contact and exchanged gestures at the concert, but as far as Mark knows Donghyuck was doing that with other fans too.

He’s a little afraid of scaring Mark off with the knowledge, but so far Mark’s taken having his favorite idol sit with him in a random booth at a random McDonald’s at three in the morning fairly well, so this bit of information probably can’t make things worse. Probably.

“Uh, Mark,” Donghyuck says, “I actually made that a watermelon on purpose. I’ve seen the video where you talk about how much you like them and well…I wanted to draw you one I guess because I’m pretty sure we’re soulmates. And I wanted to see you happy.”

Donghyuck thinks he broke Mark. He’s mouthing what Donghyuck thinks is “What the hell” over and over again but his English lip reading skills are mediocre at best. Mark’s doing an impression of a fish again and while he waits for Mark’s brain to reboot, Donghyuck finally bites into his burger. Delicious. He keeps eating while watching Mark’s face flutter through a series of emotions, looking like he’s trying to win an award for best facial expressions.

He manages to finish his entire burger and get a decent ways through his fries when Mark finally stops self imploding.

“I’m sorry, did you just say you drew a watermelon on purpose?”

That’s what Mark is concerned about. Not the soulmate thing. The watermelon. God help him.

“Yes,” Donghyuck sighs, “The ball was pink and I had a green marker, it was really easy to do. I’m just glad you managed to catch it, otherwise that would have been awkward.”

“Yeah,” Mark says absentmindedly.

Donghyuck patiently waits for the soulmate bit of his earlier statement to hit Mark, but when nothing else seems to be forthcoming, takes it into his own hands.

“So nothing about what I said about us potentially being soulmates?”

“Oh uh, I kinda already knew?”

The end of Mark’s statement sounds like a question, and this time it’s Donghyuck’s turn for a brain reboot. He makes a sound that he’s pretty sure sounds like a dying whale or something and his eyes immediately drop to Mark’s wrist.

Sheepishly, Mark rolls his hoodie sleeve up to reveal, sure enough, “Lee Donghyuck” written.

What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.

No way. No way in hell.

The longer Donghyuck stares at Mark’s wrist, the longer he becomes convinced he’s hallucinating.

What the fuck.

“-And like, I wasn’t gonna message you cause like, that would’ve been weird you know.”

Mark is rambling full speed ahead across the table but Donghyuck has a strange feeling of his entire world converging into this one McDonald’s. God he wishes he were anywhere else. When he retells this story he’s so going to change it to a cooler location.

“Mark,” he says, and Mark immediately shuts up, “How long has your wrist had that name? My name.”

His name. And wow that is a lot to take in.

Mark pauses to think and then answers, “Like only a year probably. I didn’t really get into NCT until 2017 and then once I started watching videos I felt this weird call to you and then sometime last March I was editing a video and your name was on my wrist.”

So Mark’s accepted that Donghyuck is his soulmate and received a full name in confirmation. And it wasn’t a two way thing. Huh. He’s never heard of that happening before. Stupid soulmate system and its nonexistent slash arbitrary rules. But wait, this also means Mark is Donghyuck’s soulmate. Because although one sided soulmates exist, Donghyuck knows in his heart that that’s not how this relationship is going to be.

As he stews with this new found knowledge, Mark nervously tangles his hands together and leans forward slightly.

“Are you like, okay with that? I know being an idol’s gotta be tough and if you don’t wanna do anything about this that’s chill.”

Mark really is an idiot. But he’s Donghyuck’s idiot now.

“Mark,” he says, “I’m not going to ignore you just because I’m an idol. Or because you live in Canada and I’m going back to Korea. You’re my soulmate.”

“Oh,” Mark blinks, like he really expected Donghyuck to do nothing with the soulmate revelation.

Then he says, “I’m going to university in Korea. SNU. I uh, this is gonna sound stupid but ever since I found out you were my soulmate I wanted to go to university in Seoul so I could maybe find you, so I applied to SNU and got in.”

Dammit Donghyuck is going to cry. Mark is so unbelievably unbelievable. His soulmate got into a university in a foreign country on the off chance he would get to see him. This kind of sounds like a fever dream and when he goes to pinch his wrist to check if he’s dreaming, he gasps.

Instead of just the usual Lee, his wrist now reads Mark Lee in bold lettering. Mark really is his soulmate. And dang it only took like an hour in a McDonald’s to prove it. Wordlessly, he holds his wrist up to Mark who smiles brightly when he makes out his name.

“Now I’m really not gonna leave you alone,” Donghyuck says, “Trust me, every free moment you have I will find a way to occupy. You’ll get real tired of me.”

Mark smiles fondly at him, “Nah I don’t think so. How could I possibly get tired of my soulmate?”

And okay hearing the word soulmate coming from Mark’s mouth, now that they both have each other’s names on their wrists makes Donghyuck blush. He knows that in reality, the two barely know each other, but at the same time he feels like he’s known Mark all his life. The fact that they’ll be able to see each other after Vancouver is incredible, but Donghyuck knows that even if Mark hadn’t gotten into SNU, they could’ve exchanged kakao ids or found a way. Because they’re soulmates.

“Come on, you wanna leave?” Mark asks, gesturing to their empty trays.

Donghyuck nods and together they carry their trays over to the trash and dump their waste. Mark grabs his backpack from the booth and swings it over his shoulder, tucking his phone away into his pocket. As they head to the door, he turns and hesitantly holds out his hand. Beaming, Donghyuck takes it and swings them back and forth as they leave. Mark laughs, and it’s a sound Donghyuck wants to hear forever.

As they make their way to Mark’s car, Donghyuck glances down and when he catches a glimpse of their wrists, he smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Some Notes  
> -Lucas is (was) a Dreamie in this, but I didn't make him part of 127  
> -The way soulmates work in this au is really weird I know, but once I got the idea for this stuck in my head, I couldn't let it go  
> -The bit where 127 has a strange adventure post Waffle House is inspired by true events (aka me and my friends are idiots)  
> -The probability of Hyuck actually being able to sneak off to a McDonald's (and 127 leaving Waffle House alone) are practically nonexistent, but for the sake of this story, pretend it could happen  
> -I wrote the line about Johnny and Ten's last name first. It was literally the first thing I thought of after the initial concept
> 
>  
> 
> Come find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/yellowmusings)
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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